h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Couple of bits of white card (one to project onto and one to shade the projection put around the objective) and a sunny day, works well

After a very cold, clear day it was an even colder, clear night. With the moon half full and not rising till late I took the chance to try for a couple of faint fuzzies that I'd not been able to see before now.
M42 and M43 the great nebula of Orion. Fantastic, loads of deatil at all levels of magnification. A cloud spreading out in rays from the central core of the trapezium. M43 was harder than I thought to spot because M42 is so bright!
Then it was swing the scope round into Taurus and a hunt for M1. Following the instructions in the book I eventually managed to find it. Cor it's faint and hard to see even with the scope! But there it was an oval blob which moved around the field of view as I moved the scope, so it wasn't just a bit of crud on the eyepiece!
I guess these will be the last new Messier objects I'll see this year so I've managed 32 (M43 and M1 being the new ones on 2003-12-16 and ones I wouldn't have been able to see when this started in January).
I did stay out for some time longer having a good look at a few other things with both bins and scope - clusters, galaxies, planets, you know the sort of stuff that's easy to see from the back garden

Thanks for doing all of this by the way It's improved my finding and observing skills no end!

Oh and to add to it all I saw a couple of meteors over the course of the observing session as well!

Okay, total now 32. Congratulations, that's the highest total all round.
I hope you're feeling OK now after the illness. I hadn't realised until a couple of days ago.
I still want to get M1 into my total and I'm probably going to try for it in a few days if we get a good night when the moon's out of the way, I need all the dark I can get.
I'll put the totals up at the end of the year. Thanks for your company in this, it was a pleasure and as you say, it's helped with the navigation no end.

All the best and Happy Christmas
A.M.

They think it's all over...

OK I couldn't resist on what was probably the last observing night of 2003. It was very cold but clear and by the time me and MC got home from the cinema (around midnight) I had decided I wanted one last look for M objects. A quick check with my eyes and binoculars and I felt I was up to it (thank goodness for the time off over xmas I get ). Check the books for a couple of ideas for things to look for and it's dressing up warm then setting up the scope for a galaxy quest.
Once everything had cooled down (didn't take too long in the temperature outside) off I went to look for some galaxies.
First to look for M65 and M66 in Leo. I'd worked out where they should be with the bins but it was beyond the power of them to see but following the finder charts I did manage to find them in the eyepiece of the scope. 2 very feint smudges in the same field at low power. Then swing the scope round to the tip of U.Ma's tail to look for M101. Still not found that one yet . Try a bit in the other direction for M51. First attempt was looking in not quite the right place and after checking the finder chart I was able to move the scope to the right place and there it was. M51 a small round smudge with a scecond (NGC5195) to one side of it. Then it was a neck craning time to set the scope up to see M81 and M82 at the other end of U.Ma and was relieved to note that I could still find them

So between 1 and 2am on the 31st Dec 2003 I added M65, M66 and M51 to the messier objects I've seen in 2003.
Guess that's 35 in total I managed to get

Aha! a late run.
I was planning one of those too, but was foiled by the weather.

I've put the new totals up on the page. As you say 35. Well done

Once again, thanks for your company through the year, it's been fun.

I'm going to keep going with it to see if I can do better during the coming year. If you still feel like posting I'd love to have you along.

Anyhow, happy new year
A.M.

...And it is now.

Cheers for that Austin. I felt I had to have one last go when the conditions were as good as they were.
I think I might just well continue to post when I see interesting things going on up there in the night skies

Great I'll look forward to it.
With a couple of possible comets coming up later in the year it should be good.
For me, tonight has been the first clear night in a week so I've been able to try out a small mod to my scope that I've just finished, to convert it from 1 inch to 1.25 inch eyepieces. I bought a 6mm Plossl ep through ebay and tried it out this evening on the Moon. It does make a significant difference and is definitely a bit clearer. Trouble is I'm now down to the one ep with fairly high magnification and all my 1 inch ones are redundant. I chose the 6mm for use on the Moon and planets as that gives me 150X mag. I'll now have to get a couple of others to spread the viewing.
A.M.

What have you done to change the scope? Did you replace the focusser or do something different?
If your old eyepieces are 0.965" rather than 1" (I think they might well be) then you may be able to get an adapter to use them in the new wider focussing tube (see link in a couple of lines ). I've bought a couple of eyepieces from http://www.surplusshack.com in the states (a 15mm and 9.5mm with reticle) and it all went smoothly but you will pay import duty and handling charges - even so with the low prices they've got it's still a saving. OK so they're not the highest quality but they still work and the 15mm (gives x50 in our scope) works well as a low to medium power eyepiece after the x30 of the 25mm eyepiece we got with the scope.
(spell that right this time )

I found that there was a curious knurled ring at the top of the focus drawtube. When removed it held a sleeve in place down the tube that could also be taken out. Usually when exploring in this manner I would end up with a bag of bits, but surprisingly this time I only ended up with a hole of exactly 1.25 inches. It seems that the focusing tube has been sleeved down to take the cheaper 0.965 inch e/p. You're right that they are 0.965in btw, I was just using 1in out of habit.
It seems that 1.25 is the 'standard norm' now, so I thought I'd try one to see if it would make any real difference, and it does. Whether the difference is worth the expense is debatable, but I'm going on the assumption that I may get another larger/better scope later (no plans yet) and that they will be useful for that.
The two e/p that came with the scope were pretty much at either end of my scope's magnification scale at f4 and f20, plus the inevitable X2 Barlow. I did send off to Surplus Shack and got a range of lenses between, which are quite good considering the cost. I can still swop between the two types but it's too fiddley to do in the dark with cold fingers, so I've got to plan ahead. I spend a lot of time looking at the and getting the 1.25 f6, giving me X150, was for use on lunar and planetary objects. I've got to yet consider what the next one should be, but it will probably be either 12.5 or 15mm for a lower order of power.
I'm not sure if you mentioned what your scope was, but I have got the idea from somewhere that its a 6in Orion? I was thinking that was the next reasonable size I could manage. Does it use the 0.965 e/p?
All the best
A.M.

The scope we've got is a Helios (chineese made) 6" F5 (750mm focal length) I think they're made up and badged under various names and have recently stared seeing adverts for Skywatcher (same stuff). Low cost good beginners scopes. The Orion ones are more expensive (made in britain and all that) and should be good. Both those should use the 1.25" eyepieces and some of the larger (8" and above) have options for 2" eyepieces.